UAL Assignment 1

 Candidate Declaration - I confirm that the attached portfolio is all my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself. 

Task One

A)

1.  One warmup we do in college is called "What are you doing?".  In this game you form a circle and one person goes inside the circle and does an action whilst everyone watches.  Whilst the person in the middle is doing their action someone else can walk in and ask "What are you doing?".  The person in the middle then comes up with a random scenario for the person who just came in.  This means that each time the actions will be random so when you go into the middle you don't know what to expect.  We play this game as it helps us think on the spot of what action to give the other person.  Aswell as this, it improves our improvisation skills because we don't know how long it will be until someone else comes into the circle.

2.  Another warmup we play is Splat.  The aim of the game is to be the last one standing against everyone else.  There is someone who stands in the middle and will point at someone while yelling splat.  The person who is pointed at must quickly duck down whilst the 2 people on each side of them must point at each other and yell splat.  Whichever of the 2 said it slowest is out and the game keeps going until only 2 people are left.  We play this game as it helps us improve our reaction times for when we are doing improvisations and scenes so we are always prepared.

B)  A drama game that may be useful to the group is called "The Party Game".  In this game the group forms a circle and one person must leave that circle and step outside.  This person will be the party host and 5 guests will be at the "party". Once they are outside, 5 people are selected to be guests and are given one quirk such as they are scared of shadows, or they think they're famous.  After the 5 people have been given a quirk, the party host will come in the middle with the 5 other people.  The guests have to improvise and talk to the host so the host has clues as to what their quirk is.  The way the host wins is if they manage to guess which quirk a person has.  This helps improve improvisation skills and thinking on the spot as if you are a guest you may be given a hard quirk to act out.

Task 2 

See Blog post titled: Performance Week at The Globe.

Task 3

For our performance, I played Robert Catesby, a member of The Gunpowder Plot, and the person who would try to stop Guys execution.  I was originally seen in the Duck and Drake with the surviving members of the plot, portraying Robert as on edge thinking he may be caught next, but also seething with anger, trying to think of who might've betrayed them.  When someone said that there was a spy, I slammed my cup down and looked at everyone in the group, seeing if I could tell who was guilty.

After the Duck and Drake scene, I was Robert Catesby again during the execution where I was fully revealed as Robert to the audience after Guy called my name.  Once Guy said my name, the spotlight would fall away from Guy and focus on me, showing I was the man Guy was talking about.  This let me walk through the audience with ease as they knew I was a threat, given my association with Guy, yet I played Robert as a charismatic person who seemed easy to trust during the beginning of his entrance, such as him complementing the queen.  However, he would slowly drop the façade as he revealed that he had the audience surrounded and was willing to kill everyone if Guy wasn't freed.  Once he saw Burke holding the lantern though, he would quickly change back to his pleasant demeanour, kindly asking him Burke to give him the lantern.  When Burke originally denies giving me the lantern, I made Robert look slightly more agitated, yet still keeping up his friendly attitude.  I asked again, this time calling him 'friend' so I seemed more approachable and causing Burke to finally come over. After I had stabbed him, I became more confident yelling at the queen and demanding she let Guy go, believing I had the upper hand.  

Task 4

A)  Promenade Theatre is when the audience follow around the actors during the performance.  On the other hand, Immersive Theatre is when the audience are involved in the production and become active participants.

B)  Before we performed at The Globe, I learnt a few facts about the venue to help me in my performance.  I learnt that the seats in the stalls where able to be taken down and moved, so we had a lot more space to perform near the end of the show.  The Globe was also built in 1935 and yet has very high quality sound and lightning equipment.  We also found out that John Walker lived in Stockton which helped our performance as he was able to be tied into The Globe easier.

Task 5

After doing my performance at The Globe, my acting ability and confidence have improved tremendously.  What helped my confidence the most is being able to play the two-faced leader of The Gunpowder Plot, Robert Catesby, as the role forced me to step outside my comfort zone as I spoke in front of the audience on my own.  I believe I was able to give my best performance as Robert as I had time to ease into the role by being in the Duck and Drake scene, where I was able to bounce off the other members of The Gunpowder Plot.  Since it was a smaller scene, I was able to establish Robert as very angry and unlikely to trust others even though I didn’t have many lines.   In the short time our group had in the scene, we were able to effectively scare the audience when we began walking toward them, chanting “Remember, remember, remember”, and then stepping aside for Guy to jump at them.

After the Duck and Drake scene, I was an extra in The Plague scene, however I still was believable as I kept my distance from all the victims, yet interacting with The Plague Doctor as even though he looked scary he was trying to make people better.  When the scene was nearly over, all the extras began walking to the bar, but I made sure to stay in character in case any of the audience was still watching me.  Being an extra helped improve my acting ability as I still had to give a convincing performance while only being in the background and having nothing to say.  This made me act better as I wanted to add more to the scene rather than it staying the same if I was or wasn’t there.

Once I performed in The Plague, I became Robert Catesby once again ready for the execution scene.  Once the execution scene started, I made sure to have the same reactions as everyone else as I didn’t want to stand out to the audience until I was revealed by Guy.  When Guy came on stage though, me and the rest of the members of The Gunpowder Plot had opposite reactions the rest of the mob, yelling at and disagreeing with the queen and cheering on Guy when stands up to her.  During this, I was waiting for my cue so once Guy said my name, I was fully prepared to go forward and confront the queen.  After I had killed Burke, I made sure to get in a position where I was sure I could freeze frame for 2 minutes, so I didn’t accidently move and break the immersion.  Looking back on my performance, I made a few improvements for myself, such as speaking louder so the audience could all hear me but also improve my diction, so my words were clearer, and the audience could understand me.  Lastly, after this performance I look forward to doing even more projects with college and am excited for next years Ghost Light Tour.